Cottonwood Spring Trail

Cottonwood Spring Trail is an easy 2.1-mile out-and-back from the mile 18.2 pullout on Northshore Road to Cottonwood Spring, following the broad floor of Cottonwood Wash. Plan about 1 to 1.5 hours with stops and roughly 164 feet of total climbing. The wash is mostly firm gravel with a gentle grade; the fossil wall near Halfway Narrows and the red-and-blue-gray rock around the spring give you reasons to slow down. The route lies within Pinto Valley Wilderness. Dogs are allowed on a leash no longer than six feet. Bring all the water you need rather than planning a refill at the spring.

Park at the Mile 18.2 Trailhead pullout. The visible path starts at the west end, crosses Northshore Road to the south roadcut, then traverses open desert pavement before dropping into the wash about 0.2 mile in. Once you reach the broad main channel, head upstream. The walking is gentle and the wash is easy to follow. On the way back, look for the path up the bank to the road; if you miss the turn, you will reach Northshore Road downstream and can use it to reorient.

At about 0.65 mile from the trailhead, the wash passes Halfway Narrows, where layers of volcanic ash were tilted and hardened into rock. Just before the narrows, a yellow-brown wall holds shell fossils and worm tracks. Look into the small notch cut into the wall for broad ripple marks, some sitting well above the wash floor. The nearby red-and-white gypsum hills support rare desert plants; stay on the established line and keep off the fragile pale slopes.

The spring is about 1.05 miles out, in the left fork beneath a cliff of red rock and blue-gray conglomerate. An old branch of the Arrowhead Highway climbs the other fork to bypass a low pour-over and loops back to the wash. Old pipes once carried spring water to a radiator trough beside that route, a reminder that this wash was also a practical passage through the hills. Treat the spring as a destination, not a dependable water stop.

The wash continues beyond the spring to the confluence of its East and West Forks. That version is about 3.82 miles round trip from Northshore Road and adds a short scramble over the pour-over just above the spring. The route mapped here turns around at Cottonwood Spring; the longer continuation is a separate outing.